I'm a bit disappointed with this scan; the swatch of jersey embedded in this Jim Palmer card is much brighter and much oranger (that should be a word) in person. This could very well be one of the jerseys that made poor Boog Powell look like a giant pumpkin in the early 1970s, when the O's briefly flirted with the ill-conceived all-orange polyester uniform. Paul Lukas has made this sort of sports habadashery his domain with the excellent Uni Watch blog, which has gone from the Village Voice to ESPN.com and branched out into the aforementioned wide-ranging personal site. It was through Paul's site that I first stumbled upon Mets by the Numbers, which inspired me to compile the uniform number history of the Orioles. So it was with great excitement that I learned (just this morning!) that Paul would be hosting a Uni Watch get-together this evening at Racer's in Parkville, a nifty little bar that was just 25 minutes from my house.I had a great time meeting Paul and talking sports with him and with several local fanatics, including Joe Hilseberg, who used to stitch the letters and numbers on jerseys for the Orioles and the Ravens. Joe and I have corresponded by email on several occasions, and he selflessly put his graphic design skills to use by producing a number of great-looking images for my NumerOlogy site. Of course, the topper on the evening was watching a hard-fought 6-4 victory by the O's over Paul's Mets, which I hope he won't hold against his fans and contemporaries in Baltimore.
